Bed or couch spring organization



Patented Apr. 26, 1927.

UNITED stares inane PATFNT @FFECE.

CHARLES LOFMAN, OF LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNQR TO ROBERTI BROS, OF

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, A

CORPORATION 01 CALTFORNIA.

BED OR CQUCH SPRING ORGANIZATION.

Application filed September Although my present invention is entitled as relating to a bed or couch spring organization, and although the herein described construction may be in many respects especially suit-able for use with portable tiltable bed or cot frames supported on castered trucks and adapted to be tilted from an upright position of storage to a substantially horizontal position of use (it being obviously important that. the bed frame and spring structure should in such cases be of a comparatively light but rugged construction) it should be understood that my novel spring construction is capable of use also in the construction of seats, and the like; and also that this invention relates more particularly to improved means and methods for securing and retaining sets of conical or double conical springs arranged in parallel rows, in an intended relationship to one another, to (2) primary frame elements by which said conical or double conical springs may be supported and .to (3) a subsidiary frame which may lie in substantially the same plane with the tops thereof.

It is an especial object of this invention to provide improved means for securing the tops of both an outer rowand a second row of springs relatively to a subsidiary frame and relatively to one another.

All embodiments of my invention may comprise tie wires secured at two points to the upper lap of each spring of an outer row, some or all of said tie wires being then carried inward and secured to an adjacent lap of the nearest spring of an inner row; and a preferred embodiment of my invention especially suitable for use along the lateral edges of a bed or along the edges of a seat, or the like, may comprise resilient tie wires in the form of loops whose cut ends are secured to a subsidiary frame, the uncut or looped end being in each case carried under an adjacent side of the uppermost lap of a spring, over and about the opposite side of the same, and thence to the near side of the uppermost lap of an adj acent spring of an inner row, no out ends of wire being so exposed as to jeopardize an overlying mattress, or the like.

It is a further object of this invention to use in conjunction with tie wires of the 30, 1925. Serial No. 59,569.

general character described, additional wires adapted to preserve the spacing of the outer ends of said tie wires; and these spacing wires may extend, in a general way, parallel with said subsidiary frame, although laced about the intersection of spring wires and tie wires in one or another of the unique manners hereinafter described.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a spring organization of the general character described which may be quickly or permanently assembled upon transverse elements connected with an outer or main frame, this frame being either a separate and removable frame or identical with a bed frame; and in preferred embodiments of my invention, the tops of some or all of the mentioned conical or doubleconical springs may be additionally connected by resilient means such as intersecting and diagonally extending tension springs of a known type.

Other objects of my invention may be best understood from the following descrip tion of advantageous embodiments thereof, taken in connection with the appended claims and the accompanying drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a plan view of a corner of a spring organization illustrating my invention. i

Fig. 2 is a vertical section, taken substantiallyas indicated by the line 2 -2 of Fig. 1.

Figs. 3 and 4: are respectively self-explanatory showings of alternative detail constructions; hereinafter referred to.

Referring to the details of that specific embodiment of my invention chosen for purposes of illustration, amain spring frame d5, whether identical with or distinct from a bed frame, may be provided with transverse members or slats 46, preferably disposed edgewise, although the ends 47 thereof may be twisted into an upright position, adapting them to be suspended as by rivets 48, from said main frame; and between this frame and an upper or subsidiary frame 49, I may secure, as in the general manner illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2, conical or double-conical or other compression springs, in substantially parallel rows,-

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my present invention being directed more particularly to novel means of and methods for interconnecting the mentioned springs and securing the same to the mentioned frames.

Regardless of whether the slats 16, or their equivalents, are secured to an inner face of the lower or main frame 45, or its equivalent, engagement with an inner face thereof, as in Fig. 2, or by engagen'iei'it in such an alternative manner as is shown in Fig. 4:, the upper frame 49, or its equivalent, which may be formed of a single steel rod of suitable resiliency extending entirely around the spring organization, may be supported mainly by the outer row or rows of conical or double-conical or other spiral springs; and, in order that some weight may be transmitted therefrom to springs of an inner row or rows, I may employ tie means and interconnections of the general character shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

In Fig. l I show the springs 50 and 51, which may be disposed adjacent to the longer side of a bed frame, as secured to the subsidiary and resilient upper frame element 49, or steadied relatively thereto, by means comprising tie members in the form of wire loops 52, the outer or cut ends of each of these loops being wrapped at least once around the subsidiary frame element 49 and passed under the adjacent portion of the uppermost lap of a spiral spring 50, 51, thereafter carried across said spring, again wrapped, as at 53, around the uppermost lap of the same spring, and carried from there to the adjacent uppermost lap of an inner spring 54, on which the inner or closed end of the loop may be spread somewhat as shown at 55, no out ends being so exposed as to jeopardize a mattress, or the like, that may be placed on the resultant spring organization. In the case of the end springs 56, these being ordinarily subject to less strain than the springs along the lateral edges of a bed (upon which the knee of an occupant may rest in such manner as to concentrate a heavy load thereon) the inner ends of single tie wires may be secured, somewhat as suggested at 57, Fig. 1, by merely rebending the inner end thereof upon itself and cutting the same off short; but, in order to hold the outer edges of the outermost row of conical or double-conical springs a a fixed distance from the subsidiary frame 4-9, and in order to prevent the same from shifting laterally beyond ordinary limits, I may supplement the described tie wires (which obviously should be formed of a comparatively flexible and highly resilient stock) by the use of additional peripheral wires 58, 58 (which may or may not be one continuous strand) extending in a general way parallel with the subsidiary frame 49. That is, the latter wires may be carried within the upper laps of the respective springs past which they extend, then bent outward and downward around the respective tie wires 52, 52, contacting with the same near or at their intersections with the respective uppermost laps of said conical or double-conical springs, in such manner as to bind said springs to said tie wires at said respective points of intersection; and, whenever the conditions of expected use render this desirable, an intermediate portion of the spacing wire 58, or its equivalent, may be bent upward and in ard, substantially as shown at 59, so that it partially or completely overlies, for a short distance, the uppermost lap of a spring related to spiral springs 50 and to inwardly extending tie wire loops 52 in substantially the manner above described ;-the tie wires last referred to being loops each formed by bending the opposite ends of a single piece of wire about a subsidiary frame element 492 carrying the same under the adjacent lap of a spring 50, then across said spring and around the opposite side thereof, returning the closed end of said loop through itself, the rebent end of said tie wire being finally carried around the adjacent lap of a spring 54: and spread thereon, and the last mentioned spring being one of a series of springs constituting an inner row. This construction involves the use of a little more wire than is required in the cases of the tie 52, but it provides for a tie having practically double strength throughout its length and need leave no sharp ends disposed beneath a mattress in unfavorable positions. By spreading only the inner portion of the loop in the general manner illustrated at 59 and 60, I may moreover steady the interconnected springs very effectively, while nevertheless permitting a limited lateral pivotal movement of each spring relatively to a point of attachment of the tie 52 upon the subsidiary frame element,such pivotal m0vement being however preferably restrained by means such as diagonally extending and intersecting or interlaced tension springs 61 and 62.

A spring organization of the above character may advantageously replace analogous organizations heretofore used; and although I have herein. described a single complete embodiment of my invention, suggesting alternative connections and tie constructions and also alternative modes of tying the outer rows of conical or double-conical spring elements together in such manner as spirit and scope of my invention, as the same is indicated above and in the following claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. In an organization of the general character described, comprising a main frame supporting separate springs secured in rows by means including tie members extending to a subsidiary frame: tie members each in the form of a loop which is secured by a cut end to said subsidiary frame and is passed across a spring of an outer row and secured to the remote side of the upper lap thereof, and is then carried and secured to an adjacent side of a spring of another row.

2. In an organization comprising a main frame, iIlCliVlClllZll springs arranged in rows and extending above said main frame, and a subsidiary frame: tie members each in the form of a loop which is secured by its out ends to said subsidiary fame and is passed across a spring of an outer row and secured to the remote lap thereof by returning the closed end of said loop, through itself, about said lap, the said closed end being then wrapped about the adjacent lap of the spring of the next inner row, and spread thereon.

3. In a spring organization comprising compression springs arranged in rows with their upper portions in substantially the same plane with a subsidiary frame; tie wires extending from said subsidiary frame across springs of an outer row, which is adjacent to said subsidiary frame, about the remote sides of the uppermost laps of said springs, and therefrom and about the adjacent laps of springs of the next inner row, only, so that said tie wire serves not only to interconnect adjacent springs in different rows but to limit the movement of the same relatively to said subsidiary frame.

a In a spring organization comprising: compression springs arranged in rows with their upper portions in substantially the same plane with a subsidiary frame; tie

wires extending from said subsidiary frame beneath the achacent sides of, and then across, springs of an outer row, about the remote sides of the uppermost laps of said springs, and therefrom to the adjacent laps of springs of the next inner row only and peripheral. wires, extending substantially parallel ith said subsidiary frame, but laced about the outermost intersection of said first mentioned tie wires with said up- 

